Sandra Pinto

Sandra N. Pinto

assistant researcher

H-8446-2016

Web of Science profile

iBB Group: bsirg

sandrapinto@ist.utl.pt

Expertise: Biofilms; Biophysics; Antimicrobial strategies; Extracelullar vesicles; Anticancer drugs

Short Bio:

Sandra Pinto has a PhD in chemistry. She is a researcher at IST-ID in the Biospectroscopy and Interfaces Research Group (BSIRG-iBB). Sandra does research in Medicinal chemistry, Cell biophysics (with particular focusing on confocal and two-photon microscopy) and microbiology. In the last five years she has been focused on development of innovative biophysical and imaging techniques for the characterization of microbial biofilms, as well as uncovering novel strategies to overcome drug resistance. In this sense, she and other colleagues identified polymeric nanoparticles that are synthetic mimics of AMPs. These nanoparticles were well tolerated by human cells and showed sub-μM broad-spectrum activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria in their planktonic form. This work resulted in a patent (“Polímeros de Núcleo-Camada Catiónicos”, Portuguese Patent N. 116802, granted in 21.04.2023). Sandra Pinto has published 51 manuscripts, with current h-index of 21 and 1186 (Google Scholar) citations (955 citations and h-index=18 in SCOPUS).

Research Focus:

Investigation on novel nanoparticle-based antimicrobials (dendrimers, liposomes and exossomes) and identification of innovative strategies to overcome drug resistance

DENDRICARE: Next generation of antibiofilm agents: Multivalent dendrimers with antimicrobial and biofilm disruption activity, http://doi.org/10.54499/2022.03627.PTDC

SentinelEVs: Engineering broad-spectrum defensosomes for a bacterial antivirulence therapeutic strategy, EXPL/BTM-MAT/0910/2021

Lipoid: Rifabutin liposomes: a novel nanotechnological strategy for effective treatment of systemic methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections, https://www.phospholipid-research-center.com/project/rifabutin-liposomes-a-novel-nanotechnological-strategy-for-effective-treatment-of-systemic-methicillin-resistant-staphylococcus-aureus-infections/

Quendera AP, Pinto SN, Pobre V, Antunes W, Bonifácio VDB, Arraiano CM, Andrade JM. (2023). The ribonuclease PNPase is a key regulator of biofilm formation in Listeria monocytogenes and affects invasion of host cells. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 9(1):34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41522-023-00397-1

Pinto SN, Mil-Homens D, Pires RF, Alves MM, Serafim G, Martinho N, Melo M, Fialho AM, Bonifácio VDB. (2022). Core-shell polycationic polyurea pharmadendrimers: new-generation of sustainable broad-spectrum antibiotics and antifungals. Biomater Sci.10(18):5197-5207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d2bm00679k

Baldo S, Antunes P, Felicidade JF, Santos FMF, Arteaga JF, Fernandes F, Pischel U, Pinto SN, Gois PMP. (2021). The BASHY Platform Enables the Assembly of a Fluorescent Bortezomib-GV1001 Conjugate. ACS Med Chem Lett. 13(1):128-133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsmedchemlett.1c00615.

Mil-Homens D, Martins M, Barbosa J, Serafim G, Sarmento MJ, Pires RF, Rodrigues V, Bonifácio VDB, Pinto SN. (2021). Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae Clinical Isolates: In Vivo Virulence Assessment in Galleria mellonella and Potential Therapeutics by Polycationic Oligoethyleneimine. Antibiotics (Basel). 10(1):56. https://doi. org/10.3390/antibiotics10010056.

Pinto SN, Dias SA, Cruz AF, Mil-Homens D, Fernandes F, Valle J, Andreu D, Prieto M, Castanho MARB, Coutinho A, Veiga AS. (2019) The mechanism of action of pepR, a viral-derived peptide, against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms. J Antimicrob Chemother. 1;74(9):2617-2625. http://dx.doi.org/10. 1093/jac/dkz22.

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Sandra N. Pinto